Maria Åkerberg

Maria Åkerberg is a Swedish skincare company based in Frillesås, a coastal town on the country's west coast. It was founded in 1995 by Maria Åkerberg, who started the business as a sole proprietorship and converted it to a private limited company in 2002 [2]. The company remains family-owned: Maria Åkerberg serves as chief executive, and she and her husband, Mikael Åkerberg, own the business together [2].

The brand makes natural and organic products for the face, body and hair, alongside smaller ranges for makeup, sun care and babies. It describes itself as a family business and as Sweden's leading name in professional, natural skincare. By 2022 it reported an annual turnover of around 100 million Swedish kronor and was characterised in trade press as the country's largest organic, professional skincare line [9].

Maria Åkerberg has said she started the company because she could not find skincare she considered honest and genuinely natural. In her own account, the products on the market relied on "synthetic shortcuts" or compromised on quality, and that frustration became the motivation behind the brand when she launched it in 1995. Both the company's headquarters and its production sit in Frillesås, where the founders also live.

The company's guiding concept is Deepskin Organics®, which frames skincare as a layered routine rather than a single product. The idea is that complementary ingredients applied in sequence work at different depths of the skin to nourish it, restore moisture and rebuild what the brand calls the skin's natural protective barrier. The company outlines a four-step method — serum, then oil, then cream, and an optional balm — and describes each step as carrying water-soluble vitamins, restructuring tissue, sealing in moisture or reconstructing the barrier. According to the company, the aim is to "help the skin help itself" for results that last.

Formulation is positioned around natural minerals and plant-based ingredients, with cold-pressed vegetable and essential oils used in place of synthetic alternatives. The brand publishes full ingredient declarations, a practice it says it has followed since 1995, and translates ingredient names from Latin into plain language on its packaging. Named ingredients include beeswax, honey, calendula extract, white clay and rapeseed-derived glycerin. The company maintains a strict exclusion list covering synthetic thickeners such as carbomer, silicones, certain synthetic preservatives, formaldehyde-releasing compounds and animal-derived glycerin and collagen.

The product line spans facial care, body care and hair care, with additional makeup, sun and baby ranges. Among its signature offerings is the Pure Cell Treatment, a salon facial that uses live, plant-based stem cells combined with roseroot extract; the company states it was the first brand worldwide to use live plant-based stem cells in skincare treatments [9]. Other frequently cited products include Serum C, a Hand Cream with Calendula and the Papaya Peeling exfoliant.

Production is carried out in-house at the company's own factory in Frillesås, which it expanded in 2021 to meet growing demand [5]. The brand says its plant-based oils are cold-pressed so that enzymes and nutrients are preserved, and that ingredients are checked in its laboratory before use, with finished products tested on people rather than animals. The company has stated that it chose not to sell into mainland China because of the animal-testing requirements then in force there [5].

The brand and its founder have received several awards. Trade press describes it as a fourfold winner of Product of the Year at the Organic Beauty Awards, with cited winners including the Hand Cream with Calendula, Papaya Peeling, Eye Cream More and Face Lotion More [8]. Its Serum C was named Product of the Year in 2021 [9]. Maria Åkerberg was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Sweden in 2017 [2] and Founder of the Year by the Founders Alliance in 2021 [9].

Environmental claims are central to how the company presents itself. It states that bottles and tubes are made from a fully plant-based bioplastic derived from sugar cane, which it says binds more carbon dioxide than conventional plastic, and that all of its empty containers can be recycled. The company describes its factory as running on solar and geothermal energy and claims to have reached "total carbon neutrality and even a net uptake of carbon dioxide" [6]. It also notes that water used in production is drawn from the nearby lake Lygnern.

The brand presents its products as free of animal testing and largely free of animal-derived ingredients, with beeswax and honey as the only stated exceptions. Independent reviewers and the company alike describe a range built around natural and organic ingredients and ethical sourcing. Among the ecolabels listed for its cultivated ingredients are ABCERT, RSPO, BDIH, KRAV, COSMOS and NaTrue [7].

The company is active and continues to operate as a family-owned business run by its founders. As of 2026 it maintains an online store with current promotions and recent product launches, including a Night Serum with vitamin C, a Lifting Eye Serum and a limited-edition eyeshadow collection. It sells directly and through a reseller network, with prices listed in Swedish kronor and euros and a site available in English, Dutch, German and Swedish.